Tom McBride: College’s damage control follows a student’s courage

I write in response to your editorial, “Amherst College moves to safeguard women” (Feb. 5). As it noted, were it not for the courage of former Amherst College student Angie Epifano telling her story, the whole issue of sexual violence on campus would have been swept under the rug.

The outside expert hired by the college, Gina M. Smith, said that the college had done little to protect its female students. The current campus president is getting a lot of applause for trying to solve the problem of sexual misconduct on the campus, but she’s just doing what any other president would do — damage control, and a lot of it.

After Epifano’s article appeared in the Amherst Student newspaper, there was nowhere for the college to hide.

The question is, how did it get so bad that it took a huge amount of courage of an ex-student to bring this shameful truth about the college to light?